Yolo Board of Supervisors to look at homelessness

No one can say the Yolo County Board of Supervisors isn't ambitious by wanting to end homelessness in the next 10 years.

But the job could be easier if there was better coordination of local resources, according to a report prepared for discussion this next Tuesday.

The board will meet in the Erwin Meier Center at 9 a.m. and will hear from Lisa Baker, chief executive officer for the Yolo County Housing, who will talk about the county's present "Ten Year Plan to end Homelessness" that was adopted in 2010.

The original plan was adopted with the idea that there would be a director hired to manage it and provide effective administration. The primary components of the plan include homeless prevention, affordable housing with a variety of opportunities and services, and unspecified support services.

"The plan recognizes that the causes and issues that create homelessness are multi-faceted and need a coordinated community response to the issue. In order to begin to address these issues, the plan was broken down into six major activities that would be overseen by teams made up of providers within the jurisdictions," according to Baker.

n Make transportation assistance available to improve access to services and employment opportunities;

n Create and expand Housing Resource Centers in each city to improve system coordination, reduce duplication and increase access to available services, housing and homeless services.

At the time the 2010 plan was adopted, homeless had increased 20 percent countywide -- a percentage which is still used -- although exact numbers are unavailable.

Primarily, however, the plan set out a number of tasks to help reduce homelessness including:

n Increase availability and access to mental health and substance abuse services. This includes the development of two transitional homes for a total of eight beds -- four in Woodland and four in West Sacramento.

n Create and expand housing resource centers. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Yolo Family Resource Center received $1.6 million for homeless prevention and so-called "rapid rehousing" in each of the cities and in the county, helping the center and its partners serve 1,733 individuals.

However, those funds have ceased and there are limited grants available, Baker reported.

n Access to income and services. As part of several components, one of the early pieces of the plan has been improving access to Social Security benefits, by training case managers to better assist homeless people in applying for benefits. The goal is to decrease the length of time for an application and the wait for benefits. Currently, DESS has been providing a trained case manager one day per week in the Public Defender's Office to assist with benefit application and other assistance.

n Identify and access funding for extremely affordable permanent housing and services to maintain housing. In other jurisdictions, this has traditionally meant aligning programs such as the Housing Authority's Housing Voucher and/or public housing wait lists to favor the homeless and formerly homeless.

Known funding sources for extremely affordable permanent housing, as well as services, has suffered a variety of setbacks since the plan's adoption -- this includes the elimination of local redevelopment housing monies, the large cut in funding to the federal HOME program and across the board sequestration cuts to the housing voucher, public housing and other housing programs.

"Indeed, cuts to the voucher program have resulted in not only a stagnant wait list, but may also be exacerbating the homeless problem as extremely low-income households who would otherwise have been served and diverted from the cycle of poverty and homelessness, do not have the opportunity to pay rent in accordance with their income," Baker writes. "As a result of sequestration and the two-year lack of a federal budget, the Housing Authority estimates that it has not served 176 households (or more than 350 total estimated individuals) since 2012."

Baker noted, however, that the county's Housing Element and zoning requirements are one bright spot toward providing a framework for housing opportunities as has been new construction with the creation of Eleanor Roosevelt Circle, Cesar Chavez Plaza, the rehabilitation of Fair Plaza in Woodland, the construction of Rochdale Grange, New Harmony in Davis and the Esparto family units in Esparto, along with Orchard Park in Winters.

"Although not all units are affordable to extremely low incomes, units are affordable and have target incomes," Baker writes. "In addition, some are more deeply subsidized by housing vouchers provided by Yolo County Housing."

Finally, as the Yolo Ten Year Plan is now in its third year with an executive commission is established.

Several themes have begun to emerge as a result of the first roundtable discussion from the plan's commission, Baker notes, including:

n There is no medical detox facility in Yolo County. Shelters and other programs are generally "clean and sober" facilities. This leads to incarceration or other, more expensive options for this population.

n Finding a better way to "engage" homeless persons in finding assistance and programs. Often the first "engagement" is with police. There is no longer funding for street outreach. There are potentially better mechanisms, such as "place-based engagement."

n There is a need to move forward with the public awareness and community engagement piece that is in the plan but has not been implemented. There is a need for better community and individual understanding.

n There is also a need for a better understanding of the different needs and makeup of the homeless population and how that varies from community to community.

n Identifying local sources, as well as other sources, of funding to address issues.